Some 15 years ago, the hitherto unknown “Carlo G Manuscript” was purchased at a Vienna jumble sale for the princely sum of 60 Euros. Once a doctoral thesis had been prepared based on this document and it had been made available on the internet in theform of scanned images, the manuscript was sold by Sotheby’s at auction to an anonymous buyer in 2007, as a consequence of which it has once again disappeared. The fact that the surname of its author had become illegible as a result of a smudge deepens the mystery surrounding the manuscript even further – however, although being from the same time as that of the famous Carlo Gesualdo, everything points to the fact the prince of Venosa was not the composer being searched for… [read more...]

The release of a new recording from La Morra is always an exciting moment for creative and imaginative artistry, not just within the realms of late medieval and early renaissance music. With a disc focusing on the 15th-century composer Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz, in a production from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the ensemble is set to repeat its happy knack of alighting upon an area of largely untravelled repertory and preparing an enjoyably fascinating programme from it. [read more...]

Two former students of the Schola Cantorum in Basle, both now captivating audiences each with their individual violinistic artistry, Amandine Beyer and Leila Schayegh, join forces for a new Schola Cantorum Basiliensis recording devoted to the trio sonata music of Antonio Caldara, and issued with Glossa. [read more...]

So taken was Anthony Rooley with his discovery of William Hayes’s extended Ode, The Passions (a Schola Cantorum Basiliensis production from Glossa in 2010) that this legendary explorer of any worthwhile music which lies languishing in oblivion set about assessing and assimilating the music of the Six Cantatas Set to Musick (from 1748) and the Ode, Orpheus and Euridice (1735) by the same English composer. Our complete musician (scholar, conductor, teacher, writer, lutenist...) then proceeded to enthuse and train his students at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. This new album of these examples of small-scale secular vocal music from the late English Baroque is the result; yet more fascinating finds that have been unearthed by the knowledgeable but discerning musician-scholar that is Anthony Rooley, and testament also to the SCB’s capacity to embrace all necessary aspects of a musical project such as this, from research and study to performance and beyond. This is a cause to celebrate and to enjoy: not only do we have Anthony Rooley leading a team of singers and instrumentalists from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, but it is in secular vocal music of the Georgian Baroque today; music composed on secular texts in the English language – and not by that sometimes overpowering figure of the time, Georg Friedrich Handel! For another extended interview here Anthony Rooley reflects on the life and times of William Hayes, the composer’s music and recording this in the 21st century. [read more...]

It is not only discerning music lovers around the globe who are giving a warm welcome to the recordings which are being published on Glossa; critical approval in the specialist media has been joining in as well. One example of the latter is the newly-instigated International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) which, for its inaugural 2011 edition, has chosen no less than nine of Glossa’s recent releases in its initial nominations. [read more...]

There could be no neater way of expressing how the educational aims of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis can be realized today than the recent recording on Glossa of The Passions by William Hayes, with a member of the faculty in Anthony Rooley conducting choral and orchestral forces drawn from the Schola and with soloists who have been students there (or who also teach there like Evelyn Tubb). [read more...]